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Empty Teardrops from The Dauphinais Brothers

Bluegrass radio is buzzing with music from a new group, The Dauphinais Brothers. It’s pronounced DAH-FIN-AE, in the manner of the French. Their new album, Empty Teardrops, highlights their love for traditional bluegrass and brother harmony, plus their skills at writing songs in this style.

The brothers, Nick and Lucas, live now near Asheville, NC, but were born and raised in New Hampshire where they discovered their love for bluegrass music. Their dad, Ed, was a huge bluegrass fan, and Nick tells us that this was all they heard or played growing up.

After graduating from University of New Hampshire with a degree in jazz and orchestral trombone, Nick made the move to North Carolina.

“A friend was interning at Mission Hospital in Asheville and told me I’d probably like the city. So I visited and was excited to see people that people knew what bluegrass was. A year later my brother Lucas moved down to play some music. Now he does more traveling between Colorado and Maine, mostly for solo gigs. But we decided we needed to do an album and things lined up to where we found some high caliber, although mostly semi-unheard of, musicians. We’re excited to see that it is starting to gain a little momentum and we do hope as many people as possible get a chance to take a listen to see what we have to offer.”

Here’s an example in this video of the title track, a song written by Danny Hazelton, who played with their dad back in New Hampshire. The song has never been recorded before, though it’s nearly 25 years old at this point.

Nick is on guitar, with Lucas on bass, Derek Vaden on banjo, Griff Martin on mandolin, and Laura Smith on fiddle.

7 of the album’s 11 tracks are Dauphinais compositions, written by Nick, Lucas, or Ed, including a version of Robert Frost’s poem, Desert Places, set to music.

Audio samples can be found in iTunes or CD Baby, and tracks are available for download by radio hosts at Airplay Direct. They don’t have a band web site up just yet, but you can find them on Facebook. For booking inquiries, they can be reached by email or phone (603-304-5019).

These boys know and love bluegrass music, something Nick expressed as well as I’ve ever heard it said.

“We are New Hampshire boys who really look up to and respect the complex bluegrass music of the South East, and want to do the music justice.”

About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.